/lit/ - Literature

>>19412515
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Assuming that makes sense, the segway to the next point is something like - "okay, I see that one can honour the saints in heaven in a similar way to how we honour those who are alive, and I see how it is reasonable that some particularly holy saints could be more honoured than your average person. That's all fine.
But why do you pray to the saints? Isn't prayer supposed to be directed to God alone, because " there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus"?".

First and foremost, the word pray just means "ask". If I ask you to pray for me, I am asking you to ask [God] for something on my behalf, even though I can also pray directly to God. This is a very common Christian practice, and I will assume you already do it.
The basis for the belief of prayer to the saints is threefold: first, we are called to pray for one another to God, and asking somebody to pray for you is not wrong - second, those in heaven are aware of what is going on on earth, in a supernatural way - and third, the saints in heaven are closer to God than we are.
With regards to the first point, I'm sure you already know the verse: "pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man availeth much".
I'm sure that one would agree that IF the saints in heaven could hear our prayers, because they have already proven their righteousness, their prayers to God would be very effective.
Another a fortiori argument - if the prayer of a righteous man on earth availeth much, how much moreso would the prayer of St. John the Baptist be, seeing as Jesus Himself said of him "among those born of women there is no one greater than John", but as if that was not enough, Jesus even says "yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he".
So IF the people in the kingdom of God COULD hear our requests for them to pray for us, and if hearing our request they would pray to God for us, it would surely be a profitable practice, because their righteousness is proven, and even the Lord calls the lowest person in heaven greater than even John the Baptist.